UC joins international Phase 1 trial testing CAR-T therapy for MS

The University of Cincinnati Gardner Neuroscience Institute is one of the first U.S. sites participating in an international Phase 1 clinical trial testing CAR-T cell therapy in patients with MS.

MS occurs when the immune system mistakenly attacks the myelin that protects and covers nerve fibers, disrupting the communication between the brain and the rest of the body and leading to a wide range of symptoms.

“CAR-T cell therapy begins by collecting a type of immune cell —T cells — from the patient’s own blood,” said Aram Zabeti, MD, the site's principal investigator, associate professor of neurology at UC’s College of Medicine and director of the Waddell Center for MS. “These cells are then sent to a specialized lab, where they’re genetically modified to recognize and eliminate the malfunctioning immune cells that drive MS. Once engineered, they are infused back into the patient.”

Zabeti, who is a UC Health physician, explained that one of the limitations of current MS therapies is that they mainly target inflammatory cells in the bloodstream and don’t effectively reach the central nervous system, where much of the immune activity in MS occurs.

“Engineered CAR-T cells are designed to find and eliminate those harmful immune cells wherever they are: in the blood, the brain or other tissues,” he said.

“This treatment has the potential to help patients with all forms of MS, whether relapsing or progressive,” Zabeti continued. “We’ve already successfully screened our first patient in the progressive MS group, and we still have a few openings in both cohorts of the trial.”